Take the Long Way Home
by Satis-Spence
Summary: Alex finally resolves how to escape her 1980's dystopia although it seems it may now have become her utopia. Gene/Alex. DISCLAIMER:Unfortunately, I don't own any characters within the story, all are property of the BBC etc. All reviews welcomed...
1. Chapter 1

Alex had told Gene she was just going back to the flat for a change of clothes since her attire had been splattered with a suspect's blood when Gene and the team decided to take a few pot-shots- he'd never been a fan of nonces. In fact the blood almost looked fashionable in a crazy 80's way; it didn't bother Alex really, in truth she just couldn't bear to tell him why she'd gone.

She unlocked the door and he was there waiting, sprawled across the cheap, fake leather settee. His boots squeaked as he stood, the gun in his hand clicking lightly as the safety catch was released. Arthur Layton- at last.

"Alex Drake."

"Well I never thought I would be glad to see you Layton."

"Come on now Alex- you knew it ends with me. Always was gunna be me. What your dad wanted, wasn't it Alex?"

"So it would seem."

He walked round the coffee table; lifting the gun he twirled it through her curls almost lovingly, if Arthur Layton had the ability to be loving.

"It's a shame that Alex. My offer from the scrubs still stands- you and me, could be great together Alex."

"Strangely Layton I don't usually go for murdering bastards."

"Perhaps you should tell D.C.I 'unt that."

Not Gene. She couldn't talk about Gene now.

"Just do what you came here to do Layton. Finish the job you've been dying, or should I say living to do, then we can both have peace."

"Fine, Alex." He whispered it into her ear then pulled away, she sucked in a sharp breath as the cold metal touched her temple. That's when Layton fired at Alex Drake for the second time.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex felt the pain ripping through her skull. Shards of metal drove deep into her brain as the cold flooded over her body again. Layton was gone but she was back lying in the filthy docks of 2008, her head was screaming but she heard shouts through the melee of her own mind. Molly.

"Mum!" Molly reached down and grabbed her Mother's hand. Alex closed her eyes, it was time. She could have gone in a flash of light in 1981 with her psychotic Father- she was thankful for the small mercy of dying with her daughter by her side, even if the man she now realised she was in love with was decades or minutes into her past- she couldn't tell anymore.

Her breathing slowed, she felt light as air. The drilling intensity of the noise ceased and she heard that song again.

"_So, when the day comes to settle down,_

_Who's to blame if you're not around?_

_You took the long way home."_

And so Alex Drake died in the grimy London docks of 2008 at the hand of Arthur Layton as she had always been intended to go.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ma'am, you in there?" Shaz knocked again louder this time, her knuckles rapping harshly on the toilet door seeping through to Alex's muffled, dizzy psyche.

She was slumped against a stinking nineteen eighty's toilet in the glorious Fenchurch East Police Station, fort of the legendary Sherriff Hunt. She smiled and pulled herself up.

"Yeah Shaz. I'm here." She looked down at her clothes- still the 80's style but clean. No blood.

"Well when you're ready Ma'am the Guv wants to see you, he says you've got a visitor."

Alex unlocked the door, leaning against the frame she looked incredulously at Shaz, "A visitor?"

"Yeah Ma'am, that's what he said." Shaz grinned nervously.

"Well then Shaz, lead the way."

They made their way through the corridor and back into CID, the lion's lair.

"Bloody hell Bolls what took you so long? We've all been waiting."

"Err sorry Guv." She managed a weak smile, he pouted.

"You take the long way home?"

"Yeah. Yes. Something like that. Shaz, she said I have a visitor."

"That's right Drakey- even Ray's taken to her, you might have some competition."

She marched through to his office to find Molly sitting in Hunt's throne playing quite contentedly with a Zippy character toy.

"Molly!" She cried as the girl jumped up and hugged her round the waist. Alex shrank down to her haunches and looked her in the eyes, holding her face gently. "Molly, sweetie, tell me- what year is it?"

Molly merely gave one of Alex's 'are-you-thick' looks and replied: "It's 1983. Almost dinner time. We're having hoops."

Alex was utterly bemused; the silence was broken by a sniff from the doorway. Hunt stood up straight in his typical cocky manner. "Smart kid, must take after her Father."

Molly giggled and moved away from Alex to lightly hit Gene on the arm- "You would say that Dad."

Alex just turned eyes wide, then threw her head back and laughed heartily. So it came to pass that Alex Drake lived, at the hand of Gene Hunt in London 1983 as she had always been intended.


End file.
